The RK800 Project
by ChildOfTheMoon86
Summary: Connor has faced many challenges in his short life, the Revolution, deviating, Hank, the hostage situation, but all androids start somewhere. Before everything to come, Connor must pass the rigorous testing set before him by CyberLife and one very perplexed Technician.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors notes:** And now for something new. I'm stretching my metaphorical writers wings and branding out to new territory, or at least a diffrent fandom.

I am trash for this game now, so here we go.

* * *

 **July 25th 2038**

 **5:00am**

 _Today's the day._

This is what Sofia tells herself as her alarm blares at the ungodly hour of 5:00am, forcing her to crawl out of the blissful warmth of her bed, and into the cold chill of her small apartment. She is, by far, not a morning person, but as the calendar on her alarm clock, phone, watch and even her smart fridge inform her; _today's the day._

She groans groggily as she shuffles into the dinky kitchenette, half blindly fumbling around in a daze against the brightness of the automatic lights that activate upon detecting her movement. She's going to need coffee for this, much to her dismay.

Normally she'd prefer a nice calming up of tea, but she's going to need something a little stronger than that, and it's far too early to be downing energy drinks; so, coffee it is.

She sighs tiredly as she downs the bitter liquid, face twisting in disgust, before turning her attention to the day ahead. A quick shower and breakfast, then she's pulling on the dark trousers and light grey button down shirt of her uniform, before reaching for her lab coat, the words **CyberLife Tech** emblazoned in bold black print across her back.

Sorting her reflection in the bedrooms only mirror, she ties her dark auburn hair up in a loose ponytail and smiles.

"Today's the day."

* * *

 **July 25th 2038**

 **6:37am**

The drive to CyberLife tower is long, and the lack of traffic before morning rush hour makes the journey seem like a lonely one, the streets just lightening with the sunrise only adding to the eerie quiet. But none of this bothers Sofia as the imposing sight of the tower draws near, it's bright lights cutting through the dark like a beacon.

She's only been working for the revolutionary tech giant for a little over two years, and today might just prove to be the most important day of her career, if everything goes according to plan.

Hurrying to pass through security and park her car, she tries to keep her cool once inside the building, heading for the west wing elevator.

"Sofia Arvel, floor -46." She speaks, anxiously waiting out the descent.

The elevator dings and she steps out into the lab.

"Miss Arvel, you are 1 hour, 23 minutes and 14 seconds early for your shift." An LM100 states as soon as Sofia enters the room.

"Am I?" She asks, looking to her smart watch.

It's not so much as she doesn't believe the android — for if it was wrong then it'd surely would have already been sent up to maintenance — but rather out of a habitual sense of self confirmation. It's right of course, she is rather early, but that was the point.

"No worries." She waves, dismissing the machine as she moves through the room, past the dozen vacant computer terminals and holographic displays, heading straight into the next room.

This one is smaller, a single sectioned off part of the lab, with only two terminals facing a full sized darkened oneway window that splits the area in half. On the other side of the window, a handful of mechanical arms sit still against the walls and ceiling from which they're attached, a raised, circular platform fills the centre of the floor space, closed panels of varying sized line the walls between the arms and a single door lies closed in the back right corner.

Sofia stands there, staring at the empty dark room, and smiles.

"Oh hey Sof, your early."

Spinning at the voice, Sofia waves slightly in greetings. "Morning Raj."

Rajesh, a scruffy looking man in his late 40's and fellow technician, smirks slyly as he moves to take a seat at one of the terminals. "Let me guess. You dragged your ass out of bed on time for once just to come see little old me? I'm touched, truly."

"Hardly." Sofia scoffs, moving to stand behind the man as he logs in.

"Ouch." He hisses, pretending to be hurt by her words. "You wound me."

Rolling her eyes, Sofia ignores his comment in favour of hurrying him along.

"Is everything loaded and set to go?"

"Yup, all components have been checked and logged last night. Thirium tank's been filled and ready for transfer just as soon as we get going."

Touchpad keys blink with each press as his hands dance across the keyboard, bringing up program windows to fill the curving screen, and in front of them, the darken room burns bright as Raj brings the systems online.

"Well if your not here to see me," Raj drawls playfully as he works, "then why _did_ you come in early?"

"You know why." Sofia huffs.

Stopping in his typing, Rajesh leans back to raise an eyebrow at his surprise company. "I've been an Activation Operator for longer than your skinny ass has been working here. I think I know how to bring an Android online better than you. There's no need for you to be here."

Scowling in annoyance, Sofia finally turns away from the window to eye Raj. "And what if something goes wrong? A glitch doesn't get logged or a program fails to sync. I'd rather be here to fix it now, than wait for a diagnosis report to sift through later."

Shrugging, Raj turns back to his computer. "Fair enough. I'm not the one doing unpaid overtime."

And with that, he hits enter.

The pair watch as the robotic arms come to life, panels sliding open allow access to dozens upon dozen of biocomponents, metallic frame work, and plastic plating. Like a perfectly coordinated dance, the arms shift and move in unison, rotating around each other as they begin their delicate work.

First, the metal frame — a composite of carbon-fibre and a steel alloy — is built from the ground up. Feet into legs, hips, spine, shoulders and arms, then up to the neck. As the frame builds up, other arms dance around to add the precious biocomponents — musculature and organ simulators — and weaves through it all, intricate wiring and tubing for Thirium flow connects each part together. As the white silicone-based plastic casing is sealed into place, rising up the body, the head — the only part constructed separately — is held in place, inches above the neck as the arm awaits the body's completion. Behind it, a robotic brace moves in to connect between the shoulder blades and lower back, locking into place, while in front, a thick clear tube drops down from above, an arm guiding it to connect to the machines stomach.

"Beginning Thirium transfer." Rajesh announces for Sofia's benefit, watching the loading bar on his screen.

As the last of the casing is fitted into place, the paused arm brings the head down, two others delicately moving to fix the attachment, while the brace raises the body up, allowing a simple pair of white briefs with the CyberLife logo printed down the size to be slipped on.

Distantly Sofia musses on the obsolete nature of the shorts; since the model doesn't posses any genitalia biocomponents — a subject that was weirdly over debated in initial design pitches — the briefs really only exist to serve as a sense of normalcy.

"Thirium levels at 100%, transfer complete." Raj grins, taping to accept the notification before moving onto the next stage. "Connecting data cable."

While still holding the body off the ground, the Thirium tube detaches from the stomach and is retracted back up, at the same time, a thick cable drops down from the ceiling behind the machine, and like it has a mind of it's own, the cable bends and moves, swiftly connecting to the base of the neck.

"Beginning data uplink."

It's a tense few minutes as Sofia waits, watching the steadily rising progress bar on the screen, crossing her fingers that nothing will go wrong.

As if sensing her fears, Raj smirks over his shoulder at her.

"Relax would you, everything's going perfectly."

"Easy for you to say, it's not _your_ job that's on the line here." She frets.

Raj laughs, "Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration?"

"No." Sofia snaps, then sighs, tugging at her ponytail, "This is my first big break, and if I mess this up, it'll be back patches and buy fixing. Permanently."

Raj hums in thought. He'd never say it to her face, but he was quite surprised when he heard of Sofia's sudden promotion and assignment as Lead Programer of this new top secret project. After all, he'd heard she was just another new start working in the Updates Department, before word came down from Head Office, and suddenly they were thrown together.

He think's there's more to it than that — he's got a sense for these sorts of things — but Sofia claims to be just as clueless as the rest of them.

"Six months." Sofia mumbles, eyeing the android through the glass, "To think it all comes down to this."

Rajesh opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off as the uplink reaches 20%, triggering the Thirium pump to kick in, it's regulator immediately taking over control after the first beat. With the first stuttering beats, the L.E.D in the android's temple pulses yellow three times quickly, before settling into a gentle cycle.

"T.P regulator is online, L.E.D active, Thirium circulation at 30% and climbing."

With the Thirium now circulating energy from the android's internal battery, the uplink progress quickly picks up. Each beat of the pump steadily increasing the circulation, until power flows freely across the whole body.

"Thirium circulation 100%." Raj grins, quickly tapping keys to accept the new notifications that pop up. "Activating skin."

Sofia watches, transfixed, as the synthetic fluid contained within the plastic shell shifts and changes, spreading out from over the Thirium pump, and wraps around the whole body. Smooth white becoming painstakingly detailed skin, and at the head, thick brown hair generates in a predetermined style.

Eyes wide, Sofia's breath leaves her in an instant. The Design Department really went all out with this one.

"Uplink 60%, beginning Initialisation Test."

Like a switch being flipped, the android's eyes snap open. Deep brown eyes stare impassively forward, blankly awaiting an order.

This is Rajesh's day job, and Sofia is left to feel like a spectator as he works. Fingers dancing across the keyboard, and with them a slew of prompts and checklists appear. Even _if_ this one is special, it still has to pass the standard test protocol for all androids before they can even think about letting it out.

Tapping a key to activate communications between rooms, Raj calmly asks, "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you." The machine's soft masculine voice answers.

"Audio processors online," Raj nods to himself as he ticks off the first item on the checklist. "Now, can you move your eyes?"

The android obeys, shifting it's eyes right, then left, up, down then back to staring forward.

"Good, optical units active. Now move your head." The head moves just like the eyes, and Raj continues to tick off the list.

"Alright, now state your model and function."

The android's yellow L.E.D blinks rapidly for a second as it accesses the data steadily being uploaded into it's processors, then returns to a slow rhythmic circling as it gives its answer.

"I am a RK800 prototype, serial number #313 248 317. I have been designed to act as an investigator to assist police and serve as the prefect partner."

Checking the information against his own Raj nods, "Good good. Move your arms for me."

As if just now realising it possessed the limbs, the RK800 looks down at it's arms, curling and uncurling it's fingers as it slowly lifts them up, turning them around to look at this way and that.

Eyeing the uplink progress, Raj taps his keys as he continues, "Gyroscopic stabiliser online. Now try taking a few steps."

With his prompting, the back brace lowers the android down to the ground, releasing it to take a few tentative steps forward before stopping, aware of the cable limiting it's movement. Once more it stares patiently at the glass waiting to be told what to do next.

"Gyroscope stable, motor functions fully operational." Raj smirks, "Uplink 100%, disconnecting data cable."

The cable releases from the androids neck and retracts back up into the ceiling like a snake slithering away. As soon as the cable is gone, the android's L.E.D switches from yellow to a stead light blue.

Turning off the coms for a moment, Raj leans back in his seat confidently.

"So, what'd you think?" He smirks playfully, drawling, "Is it everything you wanted?"

"It's working." Both awed and relieved, Sofia takes a moment to just stare at the machine.

Now free of the cable and brace, the RK800 stands still while slowly looking around it's place of birth. Eye's shifting, she can see it observing the robotic arms that constructed it, the panels that held it's parts, the window before it, and in the black reflection, itself.

Sofia's seen plenty of different androids, but she's quiet pleased to say she doesn't think she's seen any model quiet as animated as this one. While others will stand deathly still without clear prompting, this one actually _moves_ , eyes shifting, head turning, fingers twitching, all curtesy of the new Humanisation module she spent many sleepless nights fine tuning.

It's a little bit surreal, watching the full coding in action. No more model simulation, no more part testing or running of programs through partially constructed processors to see how it'd take.

Here it is, CyberLife's most advanced prototype yet. She feels like a proud momma. She thinks she might just cry.

"Care to do the honours?" Raj's voice snaps Sofia out of her revere, making her blink back against the rising dampness in her eyes, and swallow down the lump in her throat.

"Huh?"

"Well it is your robo baby, only fair you get to name it." He smirks, tapping his finger to the last item on his checklist. He doesn't wait for a response, turning on the coms to speak to the android again. "RK800, register model name."

He leans back, leaving the way for Sofia.

There's a criteria for new model names, obviously. It must be something short, something simple, easy to say and remember, and of course, non offensive. Sofia's been mulling over the short list for the past few weeks, trying to decide which would best fit the personality program she's been slaving over.

But now, face to face with the very object of her work, all those names vanish from her mind, and in their place, a single name she's not spoke in years tumbles from her lips. "Connor."

"My name is Connor."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's notes:** FF's limited formatting angers me, so some of this looks really janky, but I make do.

* * *

 **July 25th 2038**

 **7:03am**

.

...booting systems...

...initialising OS...

...initialising memory...

...clearing ram...

...activating A.I. engine...

/./all systems online/./

.

RK800 opened its eyes to a world of cold white and mechanical precision. A voice vibrating through a speaker 4.8 feet up and 2.2 feet to its right asks if it can hear it.

"Yes, I can hear you." RK800 answers as its protocol tells it it should.

The voice [masculine, America/Indian accent detected, deep- indicating adult Male, neutral intonations- analysis -impersonal] then asks it to move its eyes. So RK800 does.

Its processor whirrs quietly as it brings its optics to the fore front of its attention. Adjusting its lenses, RK800 can see and within its visual field, it sees a basic function test waiting to be completed, and follows the simple instructions of where to move its eyes.

The prompts disappear after completion, and RK800 wonders if that means its done well, but the voice returns again with new orders creating new prompts for it to follow. Now RK800 can move its head. As it turns, it looks around more, seeing robotic arms, [third generation CyberLife assembly unit ART23q4, ART56w3, ART19s9…] below it's feet a circular platform, [CyberLife assembly station base] behind it a door, [CyberLife security clearance level 3 required] and in front, a darkened oneway window blocks its view of the world beyond its room.

The prompts end, and RK800 waits once more for new instructions. It doesn't have to wait long as soon the voice asks it its model and function.

.

/./ _Data request- model/function_ /./

...searching...

...data found

.

"I am a RK800 prototype, serial number #313 248 317. I have been designed to act as an investigator to assist police and serve as the prefect partner." Just like that, the information is there, and now RK800 knows its purpose, why it was built. A sense of meaning fills its previously void existence, and with it, a mass of function data and protocols flood it's processors, coding streaming into every wire and biocomponent.

The voice comes again, asking for it to move its arms. Looking down, RK800 carefully observes its arms, the fingers that twitch and curl in response to its processor, the shape of the limbs, the colour of the skin that covers them, lifting them up to observe from every angle, creating a memory index of itself. While RK800 is busy creating the index, the voice interrupts, telling it to take a few steps.

The robotic arm holding RK800 in place shifts for the first time, gently lowering it down, allowing feet to touch ground, and then the arm is gone. RK800 must stand on its own, the only support it had known now gone.

Looking down at itself, RK800 creates a quick partial index for its legs, then returns to looking forward. The prompt flashes in full view of its visual processors.

.

[[ **walk** ]]

.

/./ _data request- walk cycle_ /./

...searching...

...data found

.

Easily, RK800 takes three full steps forward to the edge of the platform, then halts, a warning flashing in red taking up the majority of its visual field.

.

[[ **Warning: Data Cable limit reached** ]]

.

RK800 stands still, awaiting its next orders, but this time when the voice comes, it holds no command for it.

"Gyroscope stable, motor functions fully operational." It says, "Uplink 100%, disconnecting data cable."

Like a pressure it didn't know existed suddenly lifting, the cable attached to the base of the RK800's neck releases, disappearing up into the ceiling, and RK800 is left, free to move, but with no instructions on what to do next.

It waits patiently.

The speaker crackles off. RK800 continues to wait…

It has been 48 seconds since its last instructions, and average of 32 seconds longer than the voice's standard break period. RK800 continues to wait….

It continues to wait…

It has been 1 minute and 2 seconds since its last instructions. Feeling the need to move, RK800 twitches its fingers.

Shifting its weight between its feet, RK800 is reminded of its incomplete self visual index, and decides, in the absence of the voice, to resume the data collection.

Using the reflection of the window, RK800 turns its head, tilting arms and twisting legs slightly to get different angles. But not too much, the voice hadn't said it was to move, but it also didn't say it couldn't, so little movements should be alright. It'll apologise if it voice tells it to stop.

3 minutes and 56 seconds after the speaker turned off, it crackles back on, and with it the voice returns.

"RK800, register model name."

Head returning to the window, RK800 stills at being addressed again. Audio processors focusing in on the speaker.

.

/./system -name- override requested/./

/./no -name- registered/./

/./awaiting -name- input…/./

.

But this time, it isn't the same voice RK800 had come to expect. This voice [feminine, America accent detected, high octave- indicating female or young person, uneven intonations- analysis -emotional] only says one word.

"Connor."

.

/./audio input ...Connor... detected/./

/./...Connor... registered as -name-/./

/./confirm ...Connor..././

.

"My name is Connor." RK800, Connor, says as it awaits to know if it registered its name correctly.

1 minute and 45 seconds pass before the first voice returns.

"Congratulations Connor, you appear to be full functional. Sof will be around in a bit to collect you for further testing."

The speaker crackles off once more, but this time, Connor is left with an objective. The notification hovers quietly in the corner of its visual field, a small but constant reminder of its current mission.

.

[[ **Wait for Sof** ]]

.

So Connor waits, but 'a bit' is not a standard measure of time, and with no way of knowing how long it is expected to wait, Connor begins to fidget again. Having completed its visual index of itself, and already scanned its current environment, Connor finds that it has nothing to occupy itself.

To pass the time, it begins to pace, circling the platform to familiarise itself with its walk cycle and the movement of its body.

In this case, 'a bit' turns out to be 15 minutes and 12 seconds.

The sound of the doors security lock releasing draws Connor to face the door, full attention directed to its opening. The white automatic door slide to the right, and reveals a young woman standing behind it.

Connor's facial scanner whirrs to life upon seeing its first ever human.

.

[Sofia Arvel. Born 2/11/2016. CyberLife employee.]

.

It then turns to logging the features of this person for future reference.

.

[170cm. 123lbs. Dark auburn hair, shoulder length. Light brown eyes. Caucasian/light skinned. Faded scare below right jawline, 2.3 centimetres long. Clothes: standard issue CyberLife Technician uniform.]

.

"Hello, my name is Connor." Connor greets 0.0023 milliseconds later, its Social Relations program taking over to direct how it should approach this new person.

Sofia eyes Connor for a moment — most likely noting its chance in location from where she'd last seen it, rather than a sign of being bothered by its greeting — but she ignores Connor's words in favour of stepping in and pulling a tablet from her Lab coat pocket.

"Put your hand here." She says, turning the device around and holding it out at arms length to Connor.

Assuming this to be the Sof it was instructed to wait for, Connor quietly places its hand upon the tablet, skin retracting back to reveal white plastic beneath as it interfaces with the device. Connor's eyes blink 6 times in under a second as its systems connect with the device, blue L.E.D cycling rapidly as a closed network is formed between them. The tablet bings and Connor retracts its hand, skin regenerating back over it once more.

Turning the device around to check the successful connection herself, Sofia nods.

"Alright. Follow me."

"Where are we going?" Connor asks, head tilting 2.3 degrees to the right to show its curiosity. The display goes unnoticed however, as Sofia doesn't look up from her tablet as she taps away on it, turning to head back out the open door. But she does at least answer the question.

"Testing range Gamma 3."

She wanders down the hallway outside, not once looking up or stopping to see if Connor is following. It does, at a social acceptability 2.5 feet behind, eyes steadily scanning all of the new visual data along the way and internal GPS creating a detailed 3D map of the floor.

"Your still just a prototype after all," Sofia continues, "gotta make sure you're fully fit for purpose."

At the end of the hallway, they reach an elevator, and Sofia steps aside as she opens the doors, waiting for Connor to enter first.

Understanding the silent cue, it steps inside, moving back to allow Sofia to join it.

"Sofia Arvel, floor 0."

As the elevator quickly rises to ground level, Connor's scanners kick into high gear to quickly take in and analysis the fleeting glimpses of passing floors and the occasional other humans. Beside him, Sofia glances at her tablet but says nothing.

As soon as the doors open, Sofia is on the move again, and Connor quickly follows as it takes in the expansive lobby around them. Bridges from each compass point connect to a massive stone statue in the centre [analysing- Elijah Kamski: founder and former CEO of CyberLife, inventor of biocomponents and Thirium 310] all but the south bridge leading to high speed elevators, while large trees [analysing- Quercus humboldtii, common names: Andean oak, Colombian oak, Roble. Age range 12-3 years old.] fill the floor space several stories below.

Sofia heads straight for the south bridge, leading out towards an open entrance and floor to ceiling windows that line the other walls. She carries on out through the automatic doors, a security guard nodding to her as they pass, and Connor is carefully to keep pace behind.

But once outside, its stride falters and it halts in its tracks.

The harsh brightness of inside is suddenly replaced with a warm glow of the natural morning sunlight steaming through soft clouds that drift lazily through the sky. A gentle breeze brushes past, causing the rogue lock of Connor's hair to flutter slightly, and the sudden change in temperature causes its sensors to flare to life. The sound of birds chirping and waves lapping in the distance replace the empty hum of the tower behind them, and Connor stands still without prompting to take it all in.

Sofia comes to a stop 3.2 meters ahead, her attention drawn to the tablet in her hand, a curious twist to her features as she reads over the screen. With the connection she had Connor create to the device, she can see in real time all of the androids programs running, a scrolling list of its active functions. She takes in the sudden spike in activity in much the same way as Connor takes in the outside world for the first time.

After a moment, she turns to look back over her shoulder at the stopped android.

"Well? You coming or what?"

Blinking out of the daze, Connor nods once as it answers. "Yes."

Sofia turns to continue walking, but Connor catches a glimpse of a half grin before its left to follow on once more.

They weave along the paths from the main tower, between several standalone assembly plants, to a large circular facility three stories tall at the end of CyberLife's property. The words: **Testing Range G3** above the door the only sign that this building is different form all the others they've passed.

Using the security pass hanging from a lanyard around her neck, Sofia buzzes them in.

"Welcome to G3. You best get used to it, this'll be your home from now on." She says with a dismissive wave to the general area.

Walls and floor of pure white marked with electric blue lines and numbers surround them on all sides. Looking closer at the markings, Connor's database informs him that the outer floor is marked with a 4000m track, several meter squared box markings run along side the east side of the track, while back to back staircases of varying sizes and scales sit to the west, and in the middle of it all various pits of sample terrains create a patchwork of colour.

"Right then," Sofia sighs, interrupting Connor's scan of the new environment, "let's get to work."

* * *

 **Author's notes:** Constantly referring to Connor as 'it' hurts my soul...


	3. Chapter 3

**July 25th 2038**

 **7:46am**

Sofia watches the half naked android with carefully concealed nervousness as its eyes slowly slide around the testing range. She needs this to go perfectly, but she's already noticed some unusual activity in its processors.

It shouldn't have stopped.

Sure, going outside for the first time would natural flood its systems with a sea of new data to take in, but that shouldn't have override its current command prompt.

Maybe it was just a glitch. It was the first time so many advanced programs were active at the same time. Could have just been a hiccup, a piece of code not syncing with the sudden influx of stimuli.

It could be nothing…

Or it could be everything.

She shakes her head, forcing herself to focus on the present and worry about the oddity later. Speaking of which…

Turning to the right of the entrance, Sofia finds a single steel locker and white bench. Marching over to the locker, she uses her ID on the small digital pad, tapping in her password before turning to the android still taking in the room.

"Come over here." She calls.

It blinks, turning to look at her, then quickly makes its way to stand beside her in four short strides. Seeing the locker and the awaiting input on the keypad, Connor lifts its hand to the display, artificial skin retracting to prevent it inhibiting the connecting.

Beneath its hand, the pad lights green, and something whirrs and clicks inside the locker.

She doesn't have to tell the machine to open it, its advanced brain and logic processors making the leaps that were once impossible for older generation androids.

Opening the door, it peers inside to be meet with a single shelf holding a single set of neatly folded white clothes. It looks to her once, a silent ask for permission or confirmation, then reaches in to pull out the clothes.

"Put 'em on." She nods to the small bench behind them, and without a word the android turns, smoothly stepping over to set the pile down and sit beside it.

First it sets the white rubber and canvas shoes on the floor, then straightens. Next, it lifts the sleeveless shirt up, perfectly undoing the neat folds to slip it over it's head, then it moves to unfold the simple cotton trousers. Right and left legs find there place simultaneously, slipping into the waiting shoes in the process, and Sofia watches the strange sight of a machine dressing itself as Connor stands and pulls the trousers up in one fluid motion.

Task done, Connor stands patiently before Sofia, waiting for approval or its next orders, while she just steps back to take in the sight. Dressed in all white, the only colour coming from the CyberLife triangle on the front, Connor looks no different to any other android being displayed in the towers lobby.

Rather belatedly, Sofia realises she should have been watching its processors on her tablet, rather than the android itself. Oh well, too late for that now.

Turning away from the android to walk over to the track, she tries not to think about the way it turns to watch her, and refocuses on her job.

"Okay, we'll start off easy then work our way up. Gotta make sure your basics functions work and all that." She says, though more to herself than actually to the android.

She knows what she named it, but as soon as the word left her mouth she regretted it. She doesn't know why she suddenly felt that she should give this machine _that_ name, but now she's stuck with it, mostly because Raj is an ass who refused to let her change it.

Sucking in a breath, she tells herself to just suck it up and deal, forcing her eyes to meet brown lenses and do her damn job.

"You've been designed as the first step in the next generation of androids, so everything about you is new in one way or another." Not completely true, Sofia thinks to herself, but close enough. The 'droid nods at her words none the less, and even without her tablet Sofia can tell it's following its Social Relations program; giving cues to show its listening and prompting her to continue. "Your basic bio-muscular design has been improved to make you faster and stronger than other models of similar size to you, and while this should mean you'll be more efficient in the field, it also means we need to test your full range of movement to ensure everything has been calibrated properly. That's why I'm here." Sofia smiles slightly, the pride in her work seeping into her words, "I've been the Lead Programmer for the RK800 project for the past six months, so if anything goes wrong during testing, I'll know about it." She waves the tablet to emphasise her point, "I'll log everything here, and make any quick fixes to your code as we go, understand?"

"I understand." Connor nods without hesitation. "Your familiarity with my coding makes you a wise choice to monitor my progress."

"Exactly." Sofia smiles brighter, pleased that at least the machines social functions seem to be working well. "As such, let's get straight to it." Holding the tablet to her chest Sofia, taps away with one hand as she jerks her head to the start line of the track. "Go stand over there."

A few key taps later, and she has the display up for the first test: Fluidity of Movement and Speed.

"Let's start at 10% movement speed."

"Understood." Connor nods, starting off around the track at a leisurely walk.

Sofia's tablet records the steady pace, a progress bar at the top lighting up blue as it reads an exact 10% and below it a list of biocomponents and Thirium circulation levels fill her screen. She doesn't spend long on the slow pace —having already seen the android perfectly capable of walking to the test range with her— just enough to confirm everything looks good before call out, "Increase speed to 20%."

Without a word Connor moves up to a quick power walk. The tablet's progress bar jumps up to 20% almost instantly, and a slight spike in Thirium circulation registers, but nothing out of the expected range.

Watching until Connor has made it halfway around the track and given enough time for any anomalies to occur, Sofia decides to step things up again.

"Increase speed to 50%."

Like a switch being flipped, Connor breaks into a steady jog. Its quick, Sofia notes as it takes the 'droid less than half the time to round the other side of the track and pass by her.

Thirium circulation spikes again as the pump regulator kicks up into a faster rhythm. Just like a human, more energy is required by the legs to meet the demands of faster movement, but unlike a human, androids don't suffer from anaerobic respiration or a build up of lactic acid, what with them not actually needing to breathe. Instead, the Thirium pump, much like a heat, beats faster solely to circulate electrons from the battery to the leg biocomponents, but where a human will eventually tier, an android will not.

It takes less than a second for the components in Connor's legs to light up green on Sofia's screen, signalling they've reached optimal energy levels for the output demand, and not a single issue can be seen in the androids movements. No stumbling or delay, no pause or halting in the ever fluid shift of legs one after another to carry it around the track.

"So far so good." Sofia murmurs to herself, then calls out just as Connor is making its second pass by her. "Increase speed to 70%."

Again the systems shift before Sofia's eyes, Connor picking up to something between a fast jog or slow run, but with no issue in sight Sofia barely waits a full minute before upping to 80%.

Shifting into a clear run, Sofia half eyes her tablet while watching the unchanging face of the android as it speeds past her again. There's something slightly unnerving in not seeing a face gasping or a chest rapidly rising and falling to take in air when running so fast. With the Artificial Respiration Simulator not actually connected to the exertion output of the machine, the sight of slow steady breathes and fast paced running creates a weird juxtaposition that clashes with the natural image runners in Sofia's mind.

Ignoring the oddity of the sight, Sofia focuses more on the one not green system on her screen; a slight rise in the android's core temperature. Tapping on the orange system, she runs her eyes over the specs. Anyone remotely tech savvy can tell you that computers run hot, and the more you ask it to do, the hotter it'll become. But where a desk computer can have an exhaust fan constantly running to keep it cool, androids are a bit different. With their processors being sealed in, there's little space for the heat to escape, plus, they can't exactly have a noisy fan running constantly and ruining the illusion of being human. To get around this, a Thermal Regulator works to maintain an optimal core temperature by circulating coolant throughout the systems.

Knowing all this, Sofia eyes the coolant flow on an active diagram of the android's body, and notices the first problem of the day. Seems the Design Department misjudged the heat levels the new bio-muscular components would actually generate, causing the coolant flow to become out of sync with the systems true demands.

She switches between tabs to note the small bug to be fixed, then returns to double check the rest of Connor's system readings. Apart from the raised temperature, everything appears fine.

Keeping her eye on the orange temperature reading, she waits till Connor is about to pass her before calling out once more. "Increase speed to 100%."

Head lowering slightly in confirmation, Sofia stands back and watches as Connor breaks into a full on sprint around the track, far faster than the average human. She smiles faintly at the reading on her screen: 24.4 mph. Just shy of the current human best, and a full 6 mph quicker than any previous model.

Her moment of joy is cut short however, as the orange temperature rises, threatening to turn red, and she hurriedly calls across the room, "That's enough, Connor stop!"

The instant her words are registered, the android breaks stride, feet almost stumbling over each other to come to a complete stop as fast as possible. But Sofia barely pays the machine any notice as something bitter writhes within her, her tongue feeling like it's been coated in tar and set alight from that one word alone.

 _Connor_. The name echos within her with a painful misery, forcing Sofia to snap her eyes shut, a deep frown etched into her features. Why the fuck didn't she just name it Bryan like she was supposed to?

She shakes her head, forcing her eyes open and ordering her body to march between the terrain samples to reach the machine waiting on the other side of the room.

With one hand she holds up the tablet, still clearly displaying the nearing dangerously high core temperature, and with the other, she snake her palm under the androids shirt to feel for herself its increased heat.

Connor just stands, patient as ever, while Sofia forces personal matters from her mind and address the machine as just that. A machine.

"Run a self-diagnostic."

Brown eyes blink rapidly as a now orange L.E.D cycles quickly.

"All systems are operational, however, I appear to be overheating slightly by 6.3°F."

Sofia sighs, pulling her hand back to tap away on the tablet. "I'm going to override your systems and manually up your coolant flow. _Don't_ reject the override."

"Understand."

Tapping away at the device in her hands, Sofia just shakes her head, huffing in frustration. Though more so at herself and the design team for missing this pesky detail than at the android. At least it follow orders well, as it give no resistance to her remote take over.

As she remotely orders the androids systems to flood its body with coolant, she turns her mind to the test results. Minor overheating my not be a world shattering problem, but it's still a problem none the less.

Thirium 310, in its natural state, is a non-volatile liquid at room temperature, one of only a handful of elements to posses such characteristics. Specifically, refined Thirium used in androids, or 'Blue Blood', works best at slightly above this; 82.4°F, as this is the point at which it carries the most electrons. However, it can remain functional between 75.2°F to 103.1°F, with a minimum of 63.4°F, below which the Blue Blood will begin to solidify and a maximum of 107.6°F, the boiling point of Thirium. But the biocomponents that act as the equivalent of human organs and muscles are delicate things. Not only will a high core temperature cause the Thirium to become less efficient and evaporate faster, but prolonged heating can damage the biocomponents, resulting in expensive repairs, or worse, total replacement.

And as Sofia is all too aware, Connor is no ordinary android. Prototypes are expensive by nature, but a rather lengthy meeting (lecture) with her boss not two days prior left Sofia's ears ringing with absurd costs and the knowledge that a single piece of this machine is worth more than her entire life's savings and apartment combined.

So as her screen shows a friendly green once more over the android's core temperature, she make a mental note to keep close watch of it until she can either patch the coding error, or have the system itself altered.

Exiting out of the android's systems, it's L.E.D shifting back to a gentle blue in the process, Sofia saves the results from the run, then turns to the next item on her list.

"Okay," she sighs, walking over to stand by the half dozen staircases. "Flat movement is good, so now let's see how you handle stairs."

"Understood." Connor turns without another word and walks over to join her, waiting to be told where to being.

"Start small, then work your way up."

Nodding, Connor's gaze slides over the various steps, eyes landing on the one closest to Sofia, and makes to walk up them. Each of the staircases has a series of numbers listed on them, marking the number, height, width and angle of the steps.

First up, 6 steps, 5 inches tall, 1 foot wide, 90 degrees. As Connor nears the steps, it stops for a moment, and Sofia eyes her tablet as she sees the walk algorithms scrolling quickly. It only talks a fraction of a second for the 'droid to analyse the steps and access the balance data programmed into it's walk cycle for stairs.

With a single cautious raise of its right leg, Connor takes the first step up. Weight shifting, gyroscope adjusting, algorithms running, Connor pushes up. One step becomes two, then three, four, five, and finally six. Standing two and a half feet above Sofia on the top of the short staircase, Connor pauses to asses the descent back down.

Watching her screen, Sofia follows the green systems as Connor moves once more, one foot after the other, and begins the short climb down, but then it all goes wrong. She sees it play out like a boat heading for a waterfall, seeing the drop but unable to prevent them from going over.

A slip in coding, a misjudge of visual data to distance output, a gyroscope that over compensates for the ground that suddenly isn't there, an android flailing as it stumbles forward, feet tripping over edges, and a body that clatters to the ground.

The resounding thump causes Sofia to jump, eyes wide and staring at the downed machine, a thousand worried thoughts racing for dominance, but all screaming the same thing; _oh shit!_

Scrambling around the stairs, tablet forgotten, she hurries to kneel beside Connor who lies awkwardly sprawled out over the floor face down.

"Are you alright?" She hears herself ask, because _oh_ _shit_ the single most expensive project she's been graced with a chance to work on just _fell down the stairs._

Then, by some blessed miracle, Connor pushes itself up with its hands, face rising to meet her worried gaze, and the damn thing _smiles_ at her.

"I am undamaged." Its voice is gentle, reassuring, as it pushes to sit up more, sliding its legs to tuck under it in a kneeling position mimicking her own.

Sofia stares, completely floored by the emotional whiplash this thing just gave her. It's here, kneeling on the floor and staring into the deep brown eyes of the machine she realises just what she's gotten herself into.

"God damn androids…" She mumbles in relief as a faint smile tugs at her lips.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** Me: how do androids work? Eh, it's a game, not everything needs to make sense.

Also me: But how do they _work?!_ Proceeds to spend the next several hours working out the theoretical chemical properties of Thirium from the few context clues of the game in order to determine a logical body temperature range for Connor.

And that's not to mention I went and worked out Connor's actually running speed from the handy distance measure in the On The Run chapter. Short of actually going and using pixel measurements, because honestly screw that, we know at most Connor tops out at 5m/s or around 11.1mph. Assuming since he was searching and in a crowed area he's probably not going to be going at top speed. But given he's built to be quicker than the average human, we can assume that he'd at best be going at about half speed here. Take into account the current human speed record as a high limit, and bada bing, bada boom, one robo boi max speed 24.4mph!

Am I in too deep yet?


	4. Chapter 4

**July 25th 2038**

 **8:22 am**

At 1 hour and 19 minutes post activation, Connor has come to determine a number of things. First, that CyberLife, its developer and creator, owns an expansive amount of property that digital records fail to accurately convey its true sense of scale in a way that visual data can. Second, much like the first, Connor found that the differences between natural sunlight and artificial lighting registered by its systems simply did not be compared to the preloaded data in its memory banks. As Connor is quickly learning, there is a distinct difference between its preprogrammed standard sample measures for base reference, and actual first hand experience.

As such, Connor found out the hard way that this also applies to stairs.

Visual cortex data within its hardware told Connor what _should_ have been, of distance judged sight to actual values, of expected weight distribution and gyroscopic levelling to maintain balance. Going down _should_ have been as easy as going up, but, it wasn't.

A clip of a step, a foot placed 1.62 inches further forward than required, a system in motion unprepared and unable to make sudden alterations to the set path, and the fall became unavoidable.

While Connor's feet fought to regain a solid footing on the steps, its gyroscope screaming de-stability data at it with every jerk and waver of its body, Connor's processor rocketed through numerous outcomes again and again, over and over every nanosecond of its fall, and yet, Connor itself found none of this to be very helpful as the ground quickly rose up to meet its face.

A single split second decision to move its flailing arms from (pointless) balance stabilising to in front of it spared Connor's face the brunt of the hit.

Lying still on the ground, Connor dismissed the sea of impact force data cycling through it's visual field, waiting for every program to stop screaming at it before running a self-diagnostic.

.

/./ _run self-diagnostic_ /./

...running diagnostic...

...processing...

...processing...

...complete

.

[Thirium level: 99.98%. Thirium circulation: 100%. Batter levels: 100%. Core temperature: 82.4°F. All biocomponents: ok. All processors: ok. A.I engine: active...]

/./all systems online/./

.

The sound of hurried footsteps and the vibrations of a body dropping to the ground beside Connor brings the android out of the report and back to its current situation, face down on the floor.

"Are you alright?" It hears being hurriedly asked.

Connor's systems seem to find the need to inform it that the unseen voice belongs to Sofia, despite knowing no other human or android is currently present in the building, and proceed to analysis her speech pattern. [0.87 seconds faster than average, 3.46 decibels louder than average, elevated ending intonations- analysis -worry/concern/fear/emotional/…]

Connor silences the analysis, it knows enough from context and 44 minutes of constant contact with the human to know that the fall would create a negative reaction from Sofia.

Using it's hands to push itself up, Connor turns its head to lock eyes with the Technician and gives a gentle smile to reassure the young woman.

"I am undamaged." It answers her question now that it has established eye contact and moves slowly into a kneeling position coping her own (as its Social Relations program informs it that mirroring is a good way to develop rapport.)

Sofia stares at Connor for 4.24 seconds before shaking her head, mumbling "God damn androids" a small but still noticeable smile gracing her feature before she suddenly jumps to her feet.

The smile is gone as quickly as it came, leaving hard eyes to look down on Connor left on the ground.

"If you're not broke, then get up."

The order makes a new command prompt flash into being in Connor's visual field, leaving the android to hurry to obey.

.

[[ **Get up** ]]

.

Standing, the prompt vanishes, and Connor is left to wait once more for more instructions.

Sofia looks up at the machine, the slight different in their heights more noticeable now that they're both standing again, blinks twice then turns to look for her abandoned tablet, finding it discarded on the stairs. All the while Connor watches quietly, its systems studying every quirk of her movement, and, in the few moments between instructions, comes to ponder its own situation.

As a prototype currently undergoing extensive testing of all its range of functions, it is in CyberLife's best interest that Connor be found to be full fit for purpose with as few faults as possible, and as quickly as possible, there by minimising time and cost expenditure of the company on it. By extension then, it is in Connor's best interest to meet the requirements expected of it within the desired time frame. And, seeing as Sofia is the one to oversee all its testing, it is then in everyone's best interest that Connor is able to get along with the human, thereby removing social friction or negative bias against it from impeding the testing.

With all this in mind, Connor decides to try to build a better social standing with the young human.

"I'm sorry if my fall worried you." It starts, causing Sofia to look up from her tablet and give the android an odd look. Realising that more words might be needed, Connor continues, "I did not anticipate that stairs would prove to be an unexpected challenge." It smiles in what it's systems tell it is a reassuring manner, "But it won't happen again."

The hard look returns to Sofia's eyes and Connor realises 0.00339 seconds later that its attempt to improving relations may have backfired.

"It better not." She warns, but as her eyes drift to the stairs Connor catches the hesitance in her gaze.

Determined to complete the still outstanding task, Connor moves to stand before the steps once more.

"It won't." It reassures, taking the first careful steps back up.

Sofia's eyes are a swirl of hidden concern as she watches Connor make it back up to the top for the 6 short steps, but before it can take a step forward to go back down the other side, she cries out, "Wait!"

.

[[ **Wait** ]]

.

The order flashes red creating an impassible wall, stilling Connor at the top. It stands completely still while its eye's curiously following Sofia as she steps closer to the short staircase. She seems to debate something with herself for approximately 2.92 seconds, then makes her decision.

A hand rises, palm up to Connor's side, and the android stares back in utter confusion.

"Take my hand," Sofia huffs, tablet balanced in her opposite arm, "I'm not risking you falling a second time."

Connor's processors whirr, as it tries to possibly understand the gesture.

.

/./ _image search -visual input-_ /./

...processing...

...references found

...gesture analysis complete

.

In answer to Connor's query, a series of images and videos of children being aided by parents to walk safely along walls, ledges and, fitting Connor's situation, down steep steps flash through its mind.

Understand, Connor gentle slips its hand into Sofia's raised one, fingers curling around to apply social expectable force and then, much like the images it'd just witnessed, Sofia leads it forward. Standing slightly ahead, and body language indicating readiness to jump to action, she nods to Connor.

Carefully the first step down is taken. Then the next, and the next, until feet meet solid ground safely. Sofia sighs in relief, but her hand remains in Connor's longer than necessary as she looks back to her tablet.

Given the opportunity of physical contact, Connor tries to build on the fleeting relationship with the human. A quick search of its Social program, and Connor decides to give the forgotten hand a gentle squeeze.

"I did not fall again, as promised."

The action is not received well.

The hand is pulled free from Connor's loose grasp as if the human had been burned, and a very noticeable step back is taken as Sofia's face twists with outrage.

"The hell?!" She snaps, cradling her hand to her chest protectively.

Seeing the negative reaction, Connor quickly tries to backtrack. "I'm sorry, I didn't intend to upset you, I was merely-"

"Upset me?" Sofia cries aghast, cutting Connor off mid explanation, "Try weirded out."

She takes another step back, eyes flicking up and down the android, and it's only now that Connor's systems helpful dig up a slew of social constructs across various cultures revolving around handholding and perceived intentions of the action it just took.

If it were within Connor's programming to feel, it believes it might experience the emotion known as embarrassment. But Connor is not built to feel, only to realistically mimic for the benefit of integration.

However, not seeing a benefit to mimicking such an emotion in the current situation, Connor instead retries to explain. "I did not intent to 'weird you out' either. I was simply attempting to reassure you of my competence on stairs in a friendly manner."

Something it said must have resonated with Sofia, as the anger dissolves from her stance.

"'Competence on stairs'…" She parrots blankly, then shakes her head (a quirk Connor is quickly logging for her in his social folders) and turns away. "Finish the test." She orders without looking, forcing Connor to analysis her voice more in the absence of facial cues, then adds, "And if you fall again, I ain't help you."

"Understood." Connor answers back simply, falling back to single response as they seem to be the only ones not to upset the human.

.

[[ **Complete stairs test** ]]

.

As the mission message hovers silently to one side, Connor considers its failed attempt to improve relations with Sofia. If it cannot better its social standing with the human with words, perhaps it can still salvage something by successful completing its tests.

Focusing it's entire processing power to the task at hand, Connor's processors buzz as it recalibrates its preprogrammed settings for stairs with the new data gained from it's successful pass of the previous staircase.

It knows Sofia is watching, it won't fail again.

Staircase No.2: 12 steps, 8 inches tall, 10 inches wide, 110 degrees. Complete.

Staircase No.3: 18 steps, 10 inches tall, 7 inches wide, 138 degrees. Complete.

Staircase No.4: 9 steps, 4-7 inches tall, 8-10 inches wide, 48-67 degrees. Complete.

Staircase No.5: 14 steps, 3-8 inches tall, 6-9 inches wide, 90 degrees. Rotate 25 degrees to the right Complete.

Staircase No.6: 24 steps, 5-7 inches tall, 4-5 inches wide, 85-121 degrees. Rotate 75 degrees to the left. Complete.

Staircase No.7: 52 steps, 18-24 inches tall, 9 inches wide, 90 degrees…

As Connor slowly makes its way back down the last and largest staircase, it sees Sofia nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot with every steep step the android takes. Mechanical legs land safely on flat ground once more, and Connor smiles down at the Technician.

"Test complete."

It doesn't miss the sigh of relief that escapes Sofia at its words, nor the way she quickly ticks off the test from her checklist before the tablet is moved out of Connor's visual field.

"Good good." She mumbles, tapping away on the device. "Okay, recalibrate your walk cycle with the new data."

Doing as told, Connor only takes 0.00021 seconds to reset its walk cycle with the new, more accurate input:output ratio for climbing uneven surfaces. Sofia must be surprised by the speed of compliance, as she blinks down at the sudden change in coding on her device.

"Okaaaay…" She draws the word out, finger sliding along the screen's surface, then turns to look over that the patchwork that makes up the centre of the room. "Flat movement and stairs done. Check and double check. So next up is multi-terrain surface test. Should be easily enough." She gives Connor a pointed look, "Hopefully you do better here than the last ones."

Following Sofia's gaze, Connor nods, eyes scanning the various ground types laid out before them. A new test, a new chance to get things right.

"Start with the gravel."

The loose surface contained within the blue outlined box 5 meters long by 3 meters wide seems innocent enough, but so did the stairs. Standing before the grey stones, Connor's systems make a quick estimation of how many fill the pit, before it decides this number is meaningless and discards it.

Bracing itself for any unexpected changes in footing, Connor slowly steps out onto the stones. The ground crunches beneath its feet, but its footing holds. Connor stands still upon the gravel for a moment, letting its systems make any necessary adjustments to its balance, before carefully walking out across the length of the pit.

The ground crunches and slips slightly under the pressure of the androids body, but thankfully for both human and machine, Connor doesn't fall. Dusting its shoes off, they move onto the next one. Solid rock, grass (both real and artificial), semi-soft soil, sand, glass, concrete, asphalt and slate all prove no trouble for the advanced machine. The pit of large pebbles threatened to stumble Connor at first, but a second later it hand the hang of the shifting stones and crossed without issue. The last of the pits, and the one Sofia had purposefully been putting off, now lay before Connor's feet: ice.

Connor's systems easily detected the cool network of piping below the frozen surface keeping it from melting, and saw the way Sofia worriedly eyed the ground.

"Just, take it slow okay? Humans have enough trouble not slipping and breaking something, so, no rush."

Connor's systems have been steadily getting better at identifying the subtlety of the intonations of Sofia's voice without the need to constantly analysis every other sentence, and so without much thought process Connor can hear the worry and nervousness of the human as it steps onto the solid ice.

"I shall be careful."

But no sooner has the words left its mouth, than Connor's feet are sliding out from under it. It's right leg twists and slides out at an angle from under its body, the lack of friction doing nothing to stop the backwards tumble of the machine until a much large surface area of the androids rear makes contact and halts the unexpected movement.

"I said take it slow!" Sofia scolds, but the look in her eyes betrays her worry.

Sitting on it's butt, the cold seeping through its thin clothes, Connor gives a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, the reduced friction is more troublesome that expected."

"Yah don't say." The Technician mocks, rolling her eyes at the machine. "Can you get up?"

"I can try."

What follows is something akin to a giraffe learning to walk, complete with visual reference in the bottom corner of Connor's vision as it's systems mistake its flailing limbs and failures to right itself as some sort of attempt at mimicry. The biting cold of the ice seeps into Connor's hands, its knees and rear mildly damp from the surface melt. Finally, it manages to stand again, wobbly at first, before balance is restored and Connor stands still upon the ice as if the past 3 minutes and 12 seconds never happened.

It blinks the recalibration notification out of sight, then as easy as walking on any other surface, Connor crosses the ice like it never fell.

Sofia shakes her head at the machine, but she's smiling so Connor considers this a success and files 'falling on ice and having difficulty standing back up' under positive social responses for the human.

"The most advanced machine money can buy, and you look like a new born calf on ice. Damn, wish I could post this online, I'd get so many hits." The Technician mocks, a playful grin lighting up her face.

Curious about her words, Connor wonders why she can't upload footage of the testing, and is immediately met with the legal contracts of CyberLife detailing company privacy and non disclosure documents. A quick scan of the information in Connor's systems inform it of the rather severe stance the company has on breach of contract and their overall rather secretive development of their assets and intellectual property.

"Okay, dry terrain test done. I don't really feel like getting wet right now, so we'll come back to that later."

Brought out of its analysis of legal documents, Connor's attention snaps back to Sofia, head tilting 2.1 degrees to the right with a slight frown to show its confusion. "Your skipping tests? Shouldn't you stick to the procedure?"

Sofia huff back at it, rolling her eyes at the machine. "I'm not skipping anything, just gonna do it later, beside, it'll take time for the sprinklers to soak everything through, so might as well do some other stuff while we wait."

Stepping away from the ice, she leads the way back across to the east side of the room. She comes to a stop at the box markings, waiting for Connor to take up position before them.

"Next test is simple, see?" She gestures to the box markings, "We're gonna test your precision movements."

"Understood." Connor nods, standing at the ready.

"First, jump from the 0 to 0.5 meter mark. See it half way through the box?"

"Yes." Nodding, Connor measures the distance perfectly. Crouching slightly, arms back, it springs forward and lands exactly on the faint 0.5 meter line.

"Good." Sofia hums as she ticks off the jump. "Now step back and do it again to the 1 meter mark."

"Understood." Again, Connor has no trouble making the jump, arms swing forward with its movements to ensure a smooth landing.

"Great." Sofia smiles, lifting her eyes to meet Connor's as she suddenly orders, "Now close your eyes."

.

[[ **Close eyes** ]]

.

The prompt hovers in Connor's visual field, but its logic processors send a request of an explanation before complying.

"Why?" Connor asks, head tilting 2.2 degrees to the side and eyebrows raised in question.

The display must work, as Sofia blinks at it before explaining, "I need to know your capable of precision movements based on previous visual data."

Deciding this to be a satisfactory reason, Connor obeys, eyes slipping closed as it remains standing still.

"Now step back to the 0 mark."

Eyes fixed shut, Connor calls up the memory of the room, taking a snap shot of the layout to over lay its dark world and attach a GPS marker to its current position. With measured steps, Connor backs up to stop exactly where it remembers the 0 meter mark to be.

Sofia is careful not to give anything away as she then tells Connor to move to the 2.5 mark, back to 1, left by 0.5, forward by 3, right by 0.75, turn 90 degrees and side step left to the 8 meter mark, turn 180 degrees then return to the 0 mark.

"Open your eyes."

Eyes opening, vision returns to Connor and temporarily creates a kind of double vision before it dismisses the room map it used to manoeuvre around. Looking down, its standing precisely on the 0 meter line.

Looking back up, Connor is met with bright eyes as Sofia openly smiles.

"Finally, a perfect test."

Perhaps a good relationship with the Technician isn't completely out of the realms of possibility after all.


	5. Chapter 5

**July 25th 2038**

 **9:42 am**

Sofia sighs as she eyes the time in the corner of her tablet. She's not even been on the clock for two hours yet, and she's already exhausted. The combination of her ridiculously early rise and the lack of caffeine in her system is beginning to catch up with her.

While the android beside her patiently awaits its next instructions, Sofia considers her options, scrolling through the list of test still to do as she thinks. As it stands, the only dry test left for this room is to bring out the boxes from the storage room to the side, and have the machine run some basic lifting tests… then she'll have to do it all again while the sprinklers create a regular Detroit downpour… fun…

She scrolls through the list some more, eyes reading but not really taking anything in as her mind drifts.

She could run some more of these before the afternoon, but the more she runs, the more data she'll have to sift through later. Though really, she'll have to analysis it all one way or another, it's just a question of how much can she handle at a time. She considers all the points of interest she already has to go over; fix the coolant issue, go through the balance logs, check it's social programs, not to mention figure out why it stop outside to begin with and any other gaps she might have missed the first time. Can she handle adding to that pile another test result to sift through?

A yawn slips out between her fingers and she resolutely decides that to be a no.

She needs caffeine, stat.

"Alright we're done for now." She mumbles tiredly as she heads for the door out.

"My testing is complete?" The android asks sounding curious as it turns to follow Sofia to the door.

"I wish." She laughs mirthlessly, "No, not by a long shot. But I've already got a shit ton of data to go over, so you just," she waves a vague hand behind her, not looking back as she reaches for the door, "stay here. I'll be back later." She doesn't wait to hear the machine's response, already half way out the doors and heading back to the main tower.

* * *

"Welcome back, Miss. Arvel." The LM100 that's always on her floor greets as Sofia shuffles past.

Letting out a groan of relief as she drops into the seat at her terminal, she orders it without looking over, "Get me some tea, I'm in serious need of a booster."

"Right away." It says and then heads off to the break-room some ways down the halls outside.

"Rough morning?" A voice calls over, drawing Sofia to look up over her screen to the desk on her left.

Stewart, a guy in his early thirties and fellow programmer, sits lounging in his chair, feet up on the desk and reclined back as far as it will go without lifting the wheels off the floor.

"How do people do early mornings?" Sof moans, forcing herself to sit up somewhat properly, before pulling the tablet from her lab coat pocket and dumping it beside her screen.

"Oh yeah," Stewart laughs, "Raj said you came in early. So how's it going, bot working right or what?"

Frowning slightly, Sofia taps away at her touch keyboard, uploading the files collected on the tablet to the main system. Distractedly she answers, "That's what I'm about to find out…"

"Your tea Miss. Arvel, white, 3 sugars."

The cup is placed just outside of the danger range of rapid hands, then the android moves to return to its place, but before it goes Sofia turns to look up and ask, "Who else is in right now?"

"Currently Mr. Davidson, Mr. Fulton, Mrs. O'Neil and Dr. Carter are present on this floor. Mr. Anand and Mr. Brodeur are no longer active on this floor. Dr. Schmidt is scheduled to come by for an update at 12pm. No absences have been recorded and no other employees of floor -46 are scheduled to work today."

"Shit." Sofia groan as she waves a hand to dismiss the machine, "why are they sending that old creep down here?"

"Probably 'cause they know he likes you." Stewart grins, delighting in the way Sofia visibly shudders at the idea.

With the prospect of the old scientist being sent down to (spy) check up on them, Sofia pushes through her fatigue, taking a long sip of her tea, and redirects her full attention to the completed download.

"Alright, game face time." She mumbles to herself, then, switching to a more authoritarian tone, calls over, "Stew I'm sending you the thermal diagnostics, need you to run through them and fix a coolant glitch."

"Seriously?" He spins in his seat, feet dropping to the floor as he stares at Sof through the semi-transparent computer screen. "Bot's just been built and it's already buggy?"

"Minor glitch." Sof huffs, not looking up as she quickly get's set to work. "Things like what, 85% new shit? When's a new system _ever_ been made and _not_ had few teething problems?"

"Fair point."

"Are the others over in the bios lab?"

"Thinks so, something about the Doc messing with a new processors or somethin'."

"Does he ever sit still?" Sof wonders to herself. "Whatever, I'm pinging them."

Hands fly as keys tap in rapid sequence, and not two minutes later a group of Techs wander in.

"Welcome back Mr. Davidson, Mr. Fulton, Mrs. O'Neil and Dr. Carter."

"Sup Sof?" The only other woman of the group greets, smiling brightly as she bounds in. "You pinged?"

"Battle stations people, The Creep is coming down in less than two hours, and we need this place ship shape."

Like a switch had been flipped, the casual air of the group evaporates as they all dash to their terminals. Well, all except Dr. Carter. The 43 year old doctor of computer engineering and resident expert on biocomponents continues his lazy shuffle across the room, coming instead to stand behind Sofia. Leaning down, his eyes scan the sea of code filling the Technician's screen and hums in thought.

"Problems?" He asks simply, already seeing what Sofia is rapidly trying to fix.

"More than I'd like. Mia, I'm sending you the walk and balance 'nostics, I need you to rework the balance systems, thing was way off base."

"On it!"

"Ed, Rei, I need a full systems check, make sure nothing slipped through the cracks."

"Sure thing."

"No prob."

"Need anything from me?" The Doc asks as he straightens.

"I've got Stew working on a coolant glitch that I'm pretty sure is software related, but just to be safe, think you could see if it's a hardware problem and make a workaround?"

"Your wish is my command." He grins playfully.

"Thanks." Sof sighs.

As the room falls into the silence of deep concentration broken only by the sound of typing and clicking, Sofia turns her full attention to her own area of expertise.

"Now let's find out why you've been acting so strange…"

* * *

 **July 25th 2038**

 **12:12 pm**

Two hours and three cups of tea later, Sofia is frustratingly no closer to figuring out the cause of the RK800's strange behaviour. Unable to find a glitch or error in the coding, she's forced to do things the long way; run multiple simulation until she can recreate the problem.

As her computer bings with the end of another unhelpful reconstruction of this mornings walk, she lets out a long suffering groan, head dropping into her hands as she leans over the desk. To add to her troubles, both Ed and Rei have come up short in finding a cause within the systems themselves.

But just as Sofia thinks she might go brain dead from staring at the horribly slow progress bars littering her screen, a thought occurs.

If the problem wasn't caused by a direct glitch in the processors, maybe it was caused by something else?

Bolting upright in her chair, Sofia's hands fly to the keyboard, ready to begin chasing down this new line of thought, when the chime of the elevator, and a second later the sound of the lab door opening meets her ears.

"Welcome to research and de-" the LM100's standard greeting is cut off by a raised hand and sharp grey eyes.

"Miss. Arvel, still hard at work as always?" The newcomer chuckles, but the sound is far from pleasant.

Dr. Klaus Von Schmidt. No one's quite sure what his job is, or even how long he's been working for CyberLife. What Sofia _does_ know is that he reports directly to Head Office, and, more pressingly, possesses the ability to have anyone fired on the spot without so much as a reason why. She first met the man six months ago, and has been thoroughly creeped out by him even since.

"Dr. Schmidt." Sofia says in a rush, eyes skimming past the time on her screen and berating herself for not paying attention more as she hurries to stand, "Can I help you?"

The thin and wrinkled face of the old scientist cresses more as he gives a dark smile. "With many things." He says cryptically, then, as if the previous comment never happened, he asks, "Where might our new asset be, RK800 was it?"

Sofia schools her expression to remain neutral while everyone else in the room does their best to become invisible. Dr. Carter has already enacted his notorious vanishing act, while the other three might as well be apart of the furniture for all the life they show.

"It's down in testing, I'd bring it up for you, but it's currently running diagnostics." Sof lies, careful to deflect the old man's attention from the machine. She _really_ doesn't need him knowing about it's little issues.

"A shame." Dr. Schmidt sighs as if a he'd just been told a relative he hated had died and left him nothing but spite. Then he straightens, eyes narrowing as he scrutinises the lab around him. Every second his eyes linger on messy desks of scattered papers, half drunk cups and fingerprinted screens, is a second too long for Soifa's liking.

"Well no matter." He finally says, gaze returning to Sofia and giving her the distinct felling of a rabbit being stared down by a fox, "There will be time for that later. Right now, there are other maters needing our attention. Come, let us walk and talk."

"Yes Sir." The response is immediate and steady, practiced to not show how much the old man gets under her skin.

Without another words, Sofia silently follows the Doctor out the lab, across the hall and into the elevator. Now, they are alone.

"Dr. Schmidt, floor 40." The old man's face is completely impassive as they begin their assent, only watching Sofia out the corner of his eye. "Tell me Miss. Arvel, do you know _why_ you were assigned to this project." It's not a question.

The words hang in the air like a knife over a chopping block, and Sofia's head is the one on it.

"Don't you think it _odd_ that you, a 22 year old girl, have been put in charge of a team with an average age of 10 years your senior?" Schmidt continues on, each word weighted with the threat of something more.

Sofia shifts, careful to hide her discomfort, to keep her expression neutral. "I was informed my promotion was based on merit."

The Doctor grins, face splitting wide and showing aged teeth. Sof tries not to shudder at the sight.

"Yes," he agrees, "you were _wasted_ down in Updates." The words should not sound as sinister as they do.

Mercifully, the elevator reaches the fortieth floor, and Sofia can't get out of the small space fast enough. Schmidt returns to his impassive stare as he leads them down the short hall, the plush carpet underfoot doing nothing to soften Sofia's unease.

They reach a door labelled **Project Management** , the Doctor knocks twice, announces Sofia is here, then leaves without another word. Nor a reason why he brought Sof up here to begin with.

Shaking off her lingering discomfort, Sofia straightens her lab coat and shirt, then enters.

"Miss Arvel, welcome." Her boss, Project Manager Viktor Baranovsky, smiles as she enters. Unlike the thin rake of an old man that is Dr. Schmidt, Baranovsky is a gentle giant of a man. He sits behind his desk, large and imposing, if it weren't for his kind blue eyes and pictures of his three young kids lining the work space. Between all the paper Sofia spies a drawing obviously done by the youngest.

"Sir, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes," he smiles warmly, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat." He pauses to let her join him, shuffling papers around —not in the least trying to hide the crayon drawing of himself— then turns to look down at Sofia. "Tell me, how's our new prototype. It was successfully activated?"

"Yes Sir, the RK800 completed the Initialisation Test perfectly."

"Good. That's good, one less thing for me to worry about." He grins playfully, then leans forward, elbows on the desk as he steeps his hands under his chin. "No other issues I should know about?"

Sofia freezes. It's one thing to throw off Schmidt, but this is her _boss_ , she can't lie to him, the consequences could be disastrous for her. But at the same time, she doesn't want to admit to the problems at hand, at least, not until she knows she can fix them.

"Nothing major." She settles on being vague. "A few teeth problems, nothing we can't handle."

For a moment, Baranovsky's eyes narrow, and his hulking size suddenly becomes very apparent, then, like a cloud passing over the sun, he brightens once more.

"If you're sure."

"I am." Sof says instantly.

He nods, "Good. Just remember, we have a deadline to keep. The Board wants this new product ready and out within the month."

"It'll be ready." Sofia promises, and this time she means it.

"Good. Then that'll be all. I'll let you get back to work now."

"Thank you Sir."

She stands to leave, but just as her hand reaches the door, Baranovsky's voice warns, "Remember your position in all this Sofia."

She doesn't say a words as she leaves.

* * *

 **July 25th 2038**

 **6:53 pm**

Sofia sits back in her chair, staring at her screen. The lab is completely devoid of life beside herself and the ever present LM100 currently in standby mode, the glow of her monitor the only light source in the room. She should have left work an hour ago with everyone else, but here she is, alone, working late. Again.

The good thing is she's found the glitch. The problem is the 'glitch' isn't a glitch at all. She stares, frowning at the numbers filling her screen as if she could will them into making sense just by the force of her gaze.

On the left side of her screen, individual codes line the length of it, all lit up in friendly green, and on the right, overall output is lit up in a safe blue. Everything is within expected parameters, and yet, the outcome in the middle is definitely not.

She's found the reason why, she just doesn't understand it.

"This doesn't make sense." Sof voices to the empty room.

It wasn't a systems glitch or unsynced code. But something completely unexpected.

The new Humanisation module, the sea of code that effectively makes up the android's personality, fills Sofia's screen. By all rights, individually the code works fine, the systems perfect. But together, an oddity she can't explain stares back at her. The android _shouldn't_ have stopped, the _code_ says as much right in front of her. And yet it did and it _doesn't make sense._

Sofia slumps down on her desk, eyes closed but still seeing the code taunting her. Time ticks by as her mind does circles around the issue. She should stop. The results on her screen clearly read that this 'glitch' is perfectly fine and should be left as is.

But Sofia can stop, her mind won't rest until she understands why, even if she can't correct it, she just needs it to make _sense_.

Like a spark lit, Sofia's eyes snap open, mind snagged on code that is not her own. Code she was given, code she was told to build upon six months ago.

She jumps up, hands divining for keys before she can lose the train of thought. She dives through the coding, chasing it down to the core, to the lines she built upon.

There, she finds it. A string of numbers and a possible answer to her search. She reads it through, once, twice, three time, then throws it into the mix, and waits.

The simulation matches. All outputs ok.

Sofia stares. She found the cause. A simple little string of code, but it makes all the world of difference. But this only raises more questions than answers. On it's own, the code is near meaningless, but when input with a personality complex…

Her fingers twitch, and she lets herself follow their plan, going through her folders, back through save files after save file, to pull up the original code, the code she was first told to work with.

 **File: RK200_3.2_base_code_O.P_ Elijah_Kamski**

"What did you make this for Elijah?"

It's going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

 **Author's notes:** Poor Connor get's sidelined this chap, but don't worry, he'll be back next time! But hey, we get to meet some new faces, both nice, and… not so nice. So say hello to 'team Connor'!

Also if anyone notices the very subtle 'thing' I did here, you get a cookie (and maybe your name in a later chapter, we'll see.)


End file.
